As 2007 draws to an end, I sat down to reflect on many of the images I made throughout the year. I've been fortunate to meet so many wonderful people and I'm thankful to all of them for sharing their stories with me. The images below are my favorite 15 photos from 2007. Each has its own story, like the oldest living bartender to a exiled Chinese poet, some are stories of tragedy like the death of Sgt. Patrick Kutschbach, Sgt. Thomas Vandling, or 27-year-old firefighter Jeremy LaBella. Some of these images are intimate moments of fear and hurt like a young child who's bus wrecked or two young boys struggling with the murder of their aunt, then there is Tiger and the U.S. Open, a presidential candidate, a beautiful Nicaraguan dance, a memorial for a great disaster, the joy of a summer day, the end of a hostage standoff, a Hollywood producer, and lastly who can forget the 25th anniversary of :-) It's been a great year and I look forward to the stories of 2008. Feel free to let me know what you think of these images.

In a spot where many homeless people have spent cold-long nights, beneath a bridge Downtown, Pittsburgh, shadows are cast on the wall during a memorial service for the six homeless individuals who died in 2007 on the streets of the city. The memorial service was part of the National Coalition for the Homeless's National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day, which is held each year on the first day of winter, the longest night of the year, to call attention to the tragedy of homelessness.

Debra Pedrow and JJ Schickel have helped ship more than 27,000 golf balls to the troops in Iraq. Schickel, an employee at McDain Golf Center in Monroeville, and Pedrow, founder and organizer of the Tee Time for Troops, have put together a battle of the bands at Monroeville Volunteer Fire Co. #4's banquet hall, planned for January with the unusual goal: raising money to send golf balls to troops in Iraq who have set up a driving range there.

Rescue workers bring Andrew Scott, 19, of Mount Washington, down the hillside near the Monongahela Incline on Thursday evening on the South Side. Scott was spotted by a passenger on the incline who saw him sitting on the hillside. He had decided to scale down the hillside instead of using the incline, and was more than half-way down when he fell and injured himself, about 50 feet from the bottom of the cliff.

Lowery Burgess, a Pittsburgh-based conceptual and environmental artist and professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University stands in front of one of his paintings, Vision Portal: Lotus on exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland.

Harold Dougherty, 86, of Penn Hills remembers Christmas 1944. Instead of decorating the family Christmas tree and singing carols, Dougherty spent that Christmas in a foxhole under fire from German artillery.

Former Pittsburgh mayor, Sophie Masloff reflects back on her life in politics at her Squirrel Hill home. Masloff will be celebrating her 90th birthday on December 21st. She took office when Pittsburgh mayor Richard Caliguiri died in office on May 6, 1988. Masloff assumed the office, and served out the remainder of Caliguiri's term. She was reelected in November 1989. She was the first woman and the first Jewish person to hold the post. Masloff, who was 70 years old when she took office, was characterized by her red hair and raspy voice.

Vernon Hayden, 71, of Elizabeth Twp. was reported missing Monday. Relatives say they last saw him on Thursday. Investigators said Hayden's truck and a shotgun are missing from his home. His children gathered as a search effort was underway.

About Me

Justin Merriman, an award-winning photojournalist has spent more than a decade traveling the world to cover politics, wars, natural disasters and civil unrest. His work has appeared in leading national and international publications and he has received numerous top journalism awards. After covering the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – including the crash of United Flight 93 in Shanksville – Merriman committed to chronicling the U.S. military and its War on Terror. He has followed this story across the US and into the war zones of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. He also has covered life in Fidel Castro’s Cuba in 2002, India’s efforts to eradicate polio, the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba in 2012, the 2013 conclave and election of Pope Francis in Rome, the second anniversary of Egypt's revolution and subsequent unrest, and most recently, Russia's invasion of Crimea and the international crisis that unfolded in Ukraine. Merriman lives in Oakmont with his fiancé, Stephanie Strasburg.